Brett and Matt Berry, brothers in spear-fishing and free-diving, surfaced nearly simultaneously recently on a classic dive from shore off San Diego.

“I popped up first after I shot mine and I yelled for Matt,” said Brett, who is older at 29 to Matt’s 26. “I yelled, ‘Matt, help me out. I’ve got a fish,’ and he yelled back, ‘You have one, too?’ Turns out we shot our fish at the same time.”

They had to fight off several sevengill sharks, overpopulated in our waters right now, to retrieve their fish, two huge white seabass. They shot them just below the surface, but had to go down into 40 feet of water to get them when they tangled up there. Any diver, whether in SCUBA gear or free-diving, would be proud to bring these specimens to shore. Brett’s was the smaller of the two fish, called Grey Ghosts of the Kelp, at 43 pounds, while Matt’s weighed in at 51 pounds. Recently, a 65-pound white seabass was shot by another freediver. The Big Biscuit hunt is on.

“My fish wasn’t as big as Matt’s, but it was just cool to shoot a fish this size at the same time as my brother,” Brett said. “We weren’t expecting anything because we just popped in for a shore dive. We mostly dive off a boat.”

Matt is the more media shy of the two Berry brothers, so Brett handled the information download.

Brett, who has a private jet cleaning business, said he took extra pride in shooting the fish with a speargun he just finished building with the help of his buddy, Steve Rathfon.

“It was the first time I used it or fired it,” he said.

The two Berry Boys learned to hunt and fish at the side of their father, talented wildlife artist and carver, Bob Berry, who has transformed the family home in El Cajon into a lodge straight out of Wyoming or Montana. In May, Bob Berry, a five-time World Champion fish carver and artist, will receive a World Show Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to taxidermy and fish carving for the last 50 years. He’s only the third person to be so honored.

“We’re proud of him,” Brett Berry said. “He’s a tough guy. We’re going to go there for the ceremony.”

Brett said he and his brother have been diving since they were kids and developed a tremendous love and respect for the sea and all its resources.

As freedivers, they are following the great wake left by the legendary swimfins worn by the sport’s diving pioneers, the San Diego Bottom Scratchers, a legendary dive group formed in the 1940s of which just one member remains, James Stewart, a decorated research diver and retired instructor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Brett is events coordinator for the San Diego Freedivers Club, a group that has carried on the tradition of the Bottom Scratchers. But when you consider ocean closures and limited access due to the misguided Marine Protection Act, the fact these guys can shoot a double on white seabass speaks volumes for the tenacity of today’s divers and anglers.

“They’ve made it really tough, especially diving for lobsters,” Brett Berry said. “I used to go out and get limits, but I got maybe five lobsters this year. I’ve been diving for lobsters since high school. They took away 100 miles of Southern California coastline. It takes us double the time now to get to spots and do this. It just sucks.”

Divers like the Berrys are lucky in that they can still shoot pelagic species like yellowtail and white seabass in areas that are closed to other fishing. But they have to really know the geography and closures in order to shore dive as they did last week.

Brett Berry estimates there are about 800 freedivers in Southern California. The San Diego Freedivers lists 100 to 125 members, he said.

“We pride ourselves in practicing a sustainable way to fish,” Brett Berry said. “There’s no by-catch. No impact on the environment for what we take. But if you dive, you learn to hate seals. They’re putting a hurting on our fish populations. Our system is off balance right now.”